Caroline Stern, 55, and her boyfriend George Hess, 54, claim they were handcuffed for having happy feet on the platform of the Columbus Circle subway station  and spent 23 hours in custody as a result.

Im a dentist, and Im 55, and I got arrested for dancing, Stern told The Post. It was absolutely ridiculous that this happened.

The cops asked for ID, but when Stern could only produce a credit card, the officers ordered the couple to go with them

It used to be, when living in Manhattan, if I wasn't doing something where I expected to get carded, I didn't even carry my DL with me as I used public transportation. So now you aren't allowed to be out and about without an ID? What about all those people who say you can't expect someone to have an ID to vote???

All i know is ive posted 100 times that NYC cops are totally out of control.

I think thats ridiculous. Considering what they're up against every day, I think they're (collectively) models of restraint. But I do agree there are some that imbibe in a bit too much testosterone and steroids.

if you want to experience "out of control", go to Florida. 42 bullets in a guy who was reaching for his ID - and that was way before it was commonplace. Arresting a woman for sunbathing in her own backyard and taking her to the station naked. Tazing women and children. Arresting people for trying to bring water to Terri Schiavo. Thats not even the beginning.

Giuliani was tough but fair. These people are self-worshipping power junkies.

Yes that is very true and these left wing tyrants deserve every ounce of condemnation they get. But the story is more than that.

New York City is a place where there concentrated population density. Put rats in a confined place and they begin to turn on each other resulting in aggressive behavior. If you think of New York City as a giant Skinner box and Mayor Bloomberg the wizard operating the levers which deliver the rewards to the rats in the box, it is inevitable that he will try as he has to manipulate and control behavior. He will tell the rats what kind of pellets they can eat, and he will tell them when and where they can dance. He will cease being a Mayor and start being a wizard.

But the analogy to the Skinner box breaks down because Mayor Bloomberg does not have absolute control, he must insinuate his police force in among the the rats to quell the aggression and impose the kind of control his ambition desires. When you have a police force bigger than the Coast Guard and when you have 8 million people interacting with that large a police force, bizarre situations are going to erupt. Inevitably, the aggressive behavior of the rats, even the harmless but bizarre behavior of the rats is going to generate within that police force an us against them mentality.

Now Mayor Bloomberg is forced to choose between his established order and common sense, he must choose whether to support the culture of his bureaucratic institutions without which a city of 8 million people will degenerate into an extremely uncivil society. With 8 million people there is an institutional bias towards the institution's culture and against commonsense. If you have millions of those 8 million people who are not culturally assimilated to begin with, whose religion is different, whose language is different, whose idea of morality is different, whose idea of the rule of law is different, and whose respect for the rule of law is vastly different, we will see aggravated every tension among the rats themselves and by the rats against the institution.

By the way, if you want to generate a nice argument on these threads take up my position that overpopulation, or density of population, is itself a threat to a civil society, to a society protected by the Bill of Rights, a society that we conservatives treasure and whose agonizing death by 1000 cuts we are witnessing.

When Hess began trying to film the encounter, things got ugly, Stern said.

And there it is, the gem of the encounter - citizens get sick and tired of being bullied, pull out the camera so others can see how insane it is, and they get tackled by the cops. Interestingly there's nothing said as to what happened to the footage - wonder if it was confiscated for evidence, or accidentally deleted like such things happen so often. Hope the couple when they filed their lawsuit sent out a subpoena for the footage from the platform cameras.

And 23 hours in custody?? Wasn't there, but don't particularly care what was apparently said by the couple. If the cops wanted to be jerks and tell the couple to stop dancing on an empty platform, that was the entire limit of the encounter. Anything beyond that is pure abuse of power.

25
posted on 07/08/2012 5:51:24 AM PDT
by kingu
(Everything starts with slashing the size and scope of the federal government.)

The cops asked for ID, but when Stern could only produce a credit card, the officers ordered the couple to go with them  even though the credit card had the dentists picture and signature. When Hess began trying to film the encounter, things got ugly, Stern said.

We brought out the camera, and thats when they called backup, she said. Thats when eight ninja cops came from out of nowhere.

Hess was allegedly tackled to the platform floor, and cuffs were slapped on both of them. The initial charge, according to Stern, was disorderly conduct for impeding the flow of traffic.

Want to really piss off a cop....whole them accountable by recording their behavior...

Lived in Fun City for 57 years, from LaGuardia to Bloomberg. IMO, from my experiences there, the ingrained “us against them” mentality of the NYPD toward the citizenry dates to the Lindsay (R) administration.

We're dancin' by the trainJust dancin' by the trainWhat a glorious feelingWe're happy againAlong come the copsWith stormy face mugsThey busted our chopsLike commonplace thugsWell, let the storm troopers chaseEveryone from the placeNext chance that we get We'll do it againWe'll sing a happy refrainWhere's muh top hat and cane?Let's go singin'And dancin'By the train

Yes, but we rats get to see the greatest opera companies in the world, the finest theatre in the world, ballet, film, museum and art galleries and the most amazing restaurants and shops. It can be heaven as well as hell.

After reading 38 replies on this thread, I’m going to venture the opposite opinion: These people should not have been dancing on the subway platform.

The subways were built when the population of the city was lower and the number of people using the subways was smaller. The platforms are narrow, and at the worst of times dangerously crowded.

There is probably an ordinance against dancing on the platform—I’m not sure. If there weren’t, there would be dancers everywhere there is a musician playing music that you can dance to.

My guess is that these two people were typical liberal “we hate the cops” people. Taking out the camera was the biggest tipoff. I have had it up to here with these people (hand held over eyebrows).

There is nothing wrong with the NYPD outside of aberrant behavior of individual cops. They do a great job and are truly amazing. I can’t imagine living here if they didn’t do the job that they do. If we had cops who sided with the liberals, I think I would move somewhere else.

Many of those presentations, many but not all, can be more advantageously enjoyed, like the Super Bowl when watched on TV, better through the Internet.

Legitimate theater and ballet strike me as presentations organized by homosexuals for the amusement of other homosexuals and women. Great restaurants are another matter, but then I live in Europe where one expects first-class food in every restaurant.

Munich offers world-class restaurants, theater, ballet, opera and other examples of "high culture" without the brutal negativity of New York City-but it's population density is about 1/6 that of New York City.

I lived within commuting distance of New York City for decades and I would offer that it was not John Lindsay who perverted the city but it was under his administration that the city was lost to the forces of the left, the unions and racial identity politics. I would not necessarily confuse coincidence with causation.

Yeah, all those arty types are homos. Tell that to Peter Martins and Barysnikov!

High culture in Germany is quite disgusting, by the way. Ballet and opera and theatre feature on-stage urination, sex acts (real and faked) and a general loathing of life. I once heard the actress Martha Keller condemn the arts in Europe - all the while praising the more straight forward arts world of Manhattan. And while there is plenty of bad art in NYC, you can still walk into the Met and see some wonderful choreography and music.

Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.